From afar, the Sun looks calm and peaceful in our daytime skies. But up close, it's an of solar activity the likes of which astrophysicists didn't expect until the last year or so. "We didn't think the Sun was this particular cycle, but the observations are completely opposite," Andrew Gerrard, the department chair and director of the Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research at New Jersey Institute of Technology, told Business Insider.
typically occur every 11 years. Within that time, the Sun oscillates from minimum to maximum solar activity, with maximum activity peaking in the middle of the cycle when the Sun's magnetic fields flip. The last solar cycle was from 2008 to 2019.
We're now in the middle of the current solar cycle and are approaching maximum magnetic activity. The that's been growing over the last several years is so strong that it chokes energy from deep inside the Sun, preventing it from reaching the surface. This causes cooler pockets on the solar surface that appear as dark splotches, known as sunspots.
Scientists like Gerrard can get an idea of solar activity levels by counting sunspots. They've been reaching record highs over the last year or so. Earlier this month, NOAA reported that preliminary observations had found that all appeared within 24 hours – the highest daily sunspot record in over 22 years if confirmed.
Tracking sunspots is important because they are ground zero for and massive eruptions called coronal mass ejections. These can pose threats to.